Emily Carey has played Alicent Hightower through four episodes of House of the Dragon so far, leaving quite the impression on the show. Her character has constantly been used for political gain by her father, Otto Hightower, and now her character is married to the King of the Seven Kingdoms, Viserys Targaryen. Unfortunately, her child, Prince Aegon, is leaving a rift between Alicent and her former best friend, Rhaenyra, and their relationship may be too far gone at this point.

Of course, Alicent is only around 18 years old in the show, matching her real-life age when she filmed her scenes for House of the Dragon. Paddy Considine, who plays the King, on the other hand, is 47 years old in the show, leaving a remarkable age gap between the King and Queen. However, a few intimate scenes were needed to progress her character thus far through the story, and Carey admits to Newsweek she had some hesitations before filming. Most of the anxiety stemmed from Game of Thrones and the depiction of sex scenes that took place throughout the eight-season run of the hit HBO series.

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Luckily, the House of the Dragon crew had an open conversation with the cast, explaining how the spinoff series would differentiate itself from Game of Thrones. She says, “When we got to the rehearsal room, regardless of who was in which scenes, there was an open dialogue about, ‘Look, this is how we’re approaching the show. This is how it’s going to be different from the original.’” She continues, “‘This is what we want to talk about. This is what we want to put out. This is how we want the viewers to view the women in our show.’”

“I’ve never seen Game of Thrones before, and so in the pre-production period I sat down to try and watch [it] and of course the first season, even just the first episode of Thrones, there’s a lot of violence upon women. There’s a lot of violent sex and it made me nervous. I was like, ‘Oh God, what am I gonna have to do in this show?”

Emily Carey Credits the Intimacy Coordinator for the Great Experience

     HBO

Of course, anyone facing that sort of age gap, even in a fictional sense, would get a little nervous. Carey tells Newsweek she hadn’t met Considine by the time she was reading the script, and the difference between a 17-year-old and a 47-year-old was pretty drastic for her to comprehend. Luckily, an intimacy coordinator was on set, ready to provide assistance for any scene deemed intimate between two cast members.

“We have an intimacy coordinator on set who was amazing. Again, still being 17, the first scene that I read from the show was my sex scene and my intimacy scenes, that includes the scene where I’m bathing the king — anything that felt intimate was considered an intimacy scene, which I thought was great. And having that outlet of the intimacy coordinator, to be able to talk everything through and hot be shunned, or not feel awkward, or not feel like ‘Oh, this isn’t your job. I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable but can I ask you…’ It was never any of that, it was just that open dialogue.”

It seems as though House of the Dragon is improving in the intimacy department after Game of Thrones garnered some negative attention for its depiction of women. Nevertheless, Carey ended up loving her time on the series, even if it may soon be coming to a close. She says, “It was an amazing thing, and it was empowering being on that set as a young girl and being treated the same as all of these very established men. It was great. I think they approached this in the best way they could have done.”

Tune into House of the Dragon to see Emily Carey as Alicent Hightower, premiering every Sunday at 9 pm E.T. on HBO and HBO Max.